Comment 47048

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted September 02, 2010 at 12:13:59

The thing about "fixies" is that it isn't an instant thing. It's like learning to ride a bike all over again, but it does wonders for your leg strength. Even Lance Armstrong rides one in the off-season because it's such good training.

As for the whole hill-climing thing, that's an issue of gearing as much as anything else. My track bike has a 42x16 ratio, which gives it the accelleration (and stopping power) of a jackrabbit. And it climbs mountain accesses almost effortlessly, because as long as you keep the pace up, it pedals with ya. The problems come when people try to be macho and ride a bike that is clearly set up for a velodrome (with very high gearing and no brakes), when they don't have the muscles to use it. Messengers in Winnipeg and track stars on hardwood ride with ratios like 52x12 because THERE ARE NO HILLS, and they've been doing it for years. Go to Vancouver, on the other hand, and you'll see a pile of hipsters trying to be cool and getting themselves seriously injured because they try the same thing in one of Canada's hilliest cities.

There are a hundred ways to build the perfect commuter bike - it's all about individual preference.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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